Re: coin puzzle

From: Alan Smaill (smaill_at_SPAMinf.ed.ac.uk)
Date: 02/15/05 

Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 13:59:45 +0000

"|-|erc" <h@r.c> writes:

> "Alan Smaill" <smaill@SPAMinf.ed.ac.uk> wrote in > >> >>
>> >> >>One person turns a coin over at times 0, 1/2, 3/4, 7/8 ...
>> >> >>
>> >> >>The coin is head up at the start.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>Is it head or tail up at time 1?
>> >> >
>> >> > It's in a quantum state -- indeterminate until you observe it.
>> >>
>> >> (I'm curious why comments at the level of physics are raised
>> >> to my question, and not Herc's, which equally supposes something
>> >> impossible according to current physics)
>> >
>> > My question is well formed, yours is a self negating statement since you
>> > added that the end of an infinite line is present.
>>
>> Certainly not; you can pick up a coin, turn it over, and put
>> it back down in the same place, can't you?
>> Even easier than getting infinitely many people together,
>> I dare say.
>>
>> There is no infinite line here, everything happens in a bounded space.
>> My assumptions are no more problematic than yours.
>>
>> So, answer the question: heads or tails?
>>
>
>
> You're either an idiot or a stupid liar.
> together with the assumption of infinite flip
> speed at the singularity t=1,
> you're scenerio is impossible, mine is possible.

Let's see -- in your original puzzle
with infinitely many people, how fast are the tosses happening, then?

> In my puzzle, you *roll* the coin futher and further away,
> the contradiction at t=1
> is solved, the coin forms an infinitely long sequence and you see
> any flip in N
> but not the end.

I'm not asking about your version of my puzzle;
I'm asking about mine --
a perfectly simple puzzle by your standards.

> That's 4 times I've told you, take your petty counter example
> to your own thread.

Just stop whining and answer my question:
heads or tails?

> Note : still everyone has avoided the question how long the
> coin sequence is while
> still not unique.

Just like Herc avoids answering my question.

>
> Herc
>
>
> 

-- 
Alan Smaill

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